Not A Pug, But Rescue Just The Same

[6 Beautiful Pugs]

Meet Winston, the latest to grace the Rescue Roadster and currently resting his paws at my place.

I received a call from the local shelter that they had a 3 year old, intact male, English Bulldog who was being held as a stray. He was emaciated when he came in, with cherry eyes in both eyes, which were very infected. Infected sores on his paws and what looked like a bad case of mange. They said he seemed to have a sweet temperament.

Winston had a microchip which had never been registered. They contacted the breeder in Northern California, who gave them the phone number and address of someone in Orange County who had bought him as a puppy. The breeder declined to come get him saying he could go to rescue down here.

They called the Orange County number and left several messages but never got a return call.

They were hoping to trace him to his local "owner" and do a welfare check at their property because they were afraid he was being used for breeding and that there were more dogs on the property in as bad or worse shape than Winston. If they could locate his owners they intended to press charges for neglect and abuse.

Unfortunately, this shelter has no vet on staff and only takes dogs to vet for life threatening injuries/illnesses. Also unfortunately, they were not releasing Winston until they were sure they could not locate his local "owners". So Winston sat in the shelter in his horrible condition for 2 weeks. The shelter staff fed him well and he managed to gain a lot of weight while there, but his other conditions just got worse.

Finally they called me and said I could pick him up Saturday afternoon. When I came to get him, all the staff had to come out and tell him goodbye. he was a favorite.

I took him directly from the shelter to the vet. the first thing we needed to do was determine what his skin condition was because if it was sarcoptic mange, fostering him was going to be difficult for any of my contacts.

Luckily the scrapings came out free of mange. he didn't have the intense itching or patterns of hair loss typical of sarcoptic mange either. he was literally CRAWLING with fleas, so it is assumed his hair loss and skin crusting is due to flea dermatitis, and allergies/poor diet possibly yeast too.

He laid and patiently allowed the tech to dig two foxtails out of his infected paws...there may be more. They stained his eyes and determined that under the cherry eyes and infection there are no ulcers and his eyes look to be sound. he had a mild infection in one ear. His teeth looked good, with little tartar and he breathes nicely for a Bullie, no snorting or snoring or panting. Luckily, he had escaped Kennel Cough.

They sprayed him with an immediate acting flea killer. The table soon looked like someone had dumped a 1/4 cup of coarse ground pepper on it. Plus tons of eggs were dropping off too. They gave me Vectra 3D to put on him in the morning and a medicated shampoo to wash him with that night. they gave me a cortisone/antibiotic cream for his eyes and another antibiotic cream for his ears and an oral antibiotic for the skin/foxtail infections. they said when he's all done with his meds, he'll be fit to undergo a neuter and cherry eye surgery and to remove any foxtails if there are any more.

They said once his neglect issues are addressed and he is on good food he should be a gorgeous boy.

I was really worried whether he would be okay with other dogs, but he loves the others and they all seem to like him. I hoisted all 50+ lbs. of him into the tub when we got home and washed him 3 times to remove all the dead fleas and flea eggs and skin crusts, the last time applying his medicated shampoo. Lifting him OUT of the tub was even harder....geez those dogs are HEAVY! Today he has to get another medicated bath.

These pictures were taken the day I received him and his eyes already look much better, no longer bright red, but pink and less swollen. he is catching onto housebreaking very quickly and is just a big, huge love sponge.

He has three people interested in adopting him and we will be doing home checks and making sure these people understand the considerable costs and issues associated with the breed. he is not being cared for through Pug Rescue, but by me privately, as PRSD doesn't accept anything but pure pugs. But he was such a big old sweetheart I couldn't turn them down and both local EBD rescues were full, so they called me.

I have him on Ziwipeak, Nzymes, Missing Link and glucosamine/chondroitin supplements. Those who have EBD's, is there anything else you can recommend for him?

He enjoys laying in the crate most of the time, but hates having the door closed. he loves to chew Nylabones. He is also TERRIFIED of pooper scoopers, like someone beat him with one at some point. he uses his size to push the pugs out of the way when it's time for pets and tries his best to climb right into your lap, putting his massive, monster head up on your chest and giving kisses. the pugs don't know what to make of him.

I'm sure he won't be with us long, just long enough to get fixed up, but he sure is fun!

Take care,
Lisa

[6 Beautiful Pugs]

BTW, in the third picture you can see Dickson in the background. In the fourth, jake is on the right and Bailey is peeking out from under my husband's chair.

Take care,
Lisa

[puglover22]

oh my goodness, that poor boy and he still looks so sweet after all that.
thank you for helping him

[pugzrawk]

Lisa, you are truly an angel here on Earth with the heart the size of Winston.
I wish Winston all the very best on finding his Forever Family soon.

Maureen

[tall grass pugs]

He is very handsome, I am never surprised to find lab mixes at the pound but am shocked that a bullie was behind bars. Thanks for springing him.

[CountryPug]

Poor baby, I'm sure he feels much better now that he is being cared for. Thank you for rescuing him and I hope he finds a wonderful home.

[PugLady3]

Lordy, he'll be gorgeous once he's all fixed up! Thanks for taking care of him.

[Bethy]

He sure had a great breeder, huh????????????

Telling the authorities to turn him into rescue, rather than taking him back.

Just another example of rescues having to clean up the messes of irresponsible "breeders", and it angers me a lot, as it lumps all those breeders in with us that are ethical, giving us a bad name, too.

"Breeder" is becoming a four letter word, and it is instances like this, that make it so. There are oh, so many, wonderful, caring, ethical breeders out there, who care so much for their dogs, and who's whole life is devoted to their breed, and then someone like this poor bullie's breeder just throws him to the wolves, and doesn't care a flip what happens to him.....................It makes me very, very, angry!!!!!!!!!!

(...........and by throwing him to the wolves, I didn't mean the rescue, but just discarding him, without a thought as to what would happen to him..........a dog that that breeder bred, and should take responsibility for..........learning that one of his dogs was in trouble, and not giving a damn......I have no words for "breeders" like that.)

[6 Beautiful Pugs]

He sure had a great breeder. huh????????????

Telling the authorities to turn him into rescue, rather than taking him back.

Just another example of rescues having to clean up the messes of irresponsible "breeders". and it angers me a lot, as it lumps all those breeders in with us that are ethical, giving us a bad name, too.

"Breeder" is becoming a four letter word, and it is instances like this, that make it so. There are oh, so many, wonderful, caring, ethical breeders out there, who care so much for their dogs, and who's whole life is devoted to their breed, and then someone like this poor bullie's breeder just throws him to the wolves, and doesn't care a flip what happens to him.....................It makes me very, very, angry!!!!!!!!!!

(...........and by throwing him to the wolves, I didn't mean the rescue, but just discarding him, without a thought as to what would happen to him..........a dog that that breeder bred, and should take responsibility for..........learning that one of his dogs was in trouble, and not giving a damn......I have no words for "breeders" like that.)

Yeah, I know. They wouldn't give me the "breeder's" info. Or I would have called them and had a discussion with him/her.

I just don't get it, here is a sweet and beautiful dog of a popular and expensive breed, how the hell does he end up in a shelter in such horrible shape!?!?

Take care,
Lisa

[Denika]

OH. MY. GOSH. I can't believe that he was in a shelter. He is, and will even be more, gorgeous. The weird thing is, my Mom looks after this 80+ year old man who had one named Baby. While he was in the hospital, Baby always stays with my Mama and Daddy. This last time though in May, something awful happened. Baby just suddenly became very sick, and even though they immediately took her to the emergency vet, she died. The vet said she must have had cancer, because it's common in the breed, and they could find nothing else wrong. So, yesterday, the elderly man just demanded to get another puppy. Luckily, a very reputable breeder just happens to live close to me, and they brought a sweet puppy home. I have the pictures, and she is gorgeous. Winston actually looks like he'll be marked a lot like her. They are beautiful dogs!